Ouroboros Spine hymn

there's a thrill to this race that kivaluk has not felt in ... a very long time. so long that he cannot rightly recall from memory.

a sort of buoyant, weightless, happiness as a labored laugh passes betwixt his lips, snagged by the wind that breezes thru his fur.

a feeling that is, tragically, almost a stranger to him.

a feeling that kivaluk is weary to trust for it never seems to ... last.

still, he tucks those dark thoughts away to focus himself in the moment. of the earth beneath his paws, of the sound of her catching up —

he peers over his shoulder to gauge the distance between them and doesn't realize there's a wayward branch fallen in the last snowstorm until he's tripped over it; his body tumbling over itself with the momentum from the run, landing with a grunt and a breathless and winded oof—.